Medusa vs Solidus (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Medusa grades higher than Solidus: 2.4 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Medusa grades higher on value for money and platforms. Solidus grades higher on features. They get the same grade on the free plan and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Solidus
Extensible open-source ecommerce platform with optional managed cloud
Which one is for you
Pick Medusa if
- Fits if your team writes JavaScript and wants a custom or headless store
- Works for builders who don't want a platform fee on sales
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want a store without developers, as setup takes engineering work
- Skip it if you can't host a server, because the free version means doing that yourself
- Watch out: Cloud costs grow with usage, with edge requests past the allowance at $0.30 per 1M
- Watch out: Medusa Cloud can't accept cards issued by banks registered in India
Pick Solidus if
- Fits if you have Ruby developers and want a custom store
- Works for brands that need subscriptions or complex promotions
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if nobody can host and upgrade the code, since DIY leaves that to you
- Pricey if you want Cloud: both plans are quoted by sales
- Watch out: the vendor says DIY and Cloud have the same features, so Cloud only removes the infrastructure work
- Tight if you need support, as business-hours help starts at Starter Cloud
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAMedusaFair | 2.2GPASolidusFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BCloud Develop is $29 a month, in the category's cheaper quarter, and the open-source version is free. Higher Cloud tiers are $99 and $299, and costs grow with usage. | CThe DIY Edition is free only if you host it. Starter and Enterprise Cloud prices aren't published, so it sits in the middle. |
| Free plan and trial | BThe open-source software is free with no sales-volume fee, but you host it yourself. Cloud has no free plan or trial. | BThe DIY Edition holds the whole platform, with no caps, but you provide the infrastructure. |
| Features | CProducts, carts, orders, payments, regions, multi-warehouse stock and promotions as building blocks. A store takes engineering work to assemble. | BSubscriptions, promotions, multi-store, multi-currency, returns and exchanges, and REST and GraphQL APIs. Nothing in the listing is missing from the core job. |
| Ease of use | DNo store rating on record. It is a developer framework, set up with code and a PostgreSQL database. | DNo rating on record. It's a developer framework you run and upgrade yourself. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, with an admin and a Cloud hosting service, an MCP server and a CLI. No phone or desktop app. | CWeb only, with APIs and an extensible admin. No apps and no integration list. |
| Best for | custom stores built in JavaScript | Ruby developers building a custom store |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Medusa and Solidus. How we grade
Where they differ
At a glance
| Medusa | Solidus | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $29 per month and up, billed monthly (Cloud Develop) | Not published |
| Free plan | The open-source software is free to self-host; the Cloud plans start at $29 a month. | The DIY Edition is free and includes the whole platform, but you provide and maintain the infrastructure. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Medusa | Nebulab and the open-source community |
| Price read from | medusajs.com | solidus.io |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Medusa
- It is a developer framework: the admin and a starter storefront exist, but a store takes engineering work to set up.
- Cloud prices start at the listed figure and grow with infrastructure and usage; edge requests beyond the allowance cost $0.30 per 1M.
- Cloud development access is billed per seat, and log drains are a $50 per month add-on on some plans.
- Medusa Cloud cannot accept cards issued by banks registered in India.
Solidus
- Solidus Cloud prices are not published; both paid plans go through a sales conversation.
- The DIY Edition leaves hosting, maintenance and upgrades to you.
- The vendor says the DIY Edition and Solidus Cloud have the same features; Cloud only removes the infrastructure work.
Key features
Medusa
- Commerce building blocks
- Products, carts, orders and payments are provided as primitives inside a framework, so developers customize behavior instead of working around a fixed storefront.
- Sales channels and regions
- Several sales channels with their own rules and products, plus multiple currencies, local tax rules and region-specific shipping and payment settings.
- Inventory and promotions
- Multi-warehouse inventory with order reservations, and a promotion engine for campaigns, free shipping and customer or B2B pricing.
- Medusa Admin
- A merchant dashboard for daily operations. The Cloud FAQ says Admin users are free and unlimited, and only development seats are billed.
- Cloud hosting
- Medusa Cloud deploys from GitHub and hosts the backend, admin and storefront on a CDN, with previews, logs, backups and autoscaling on higher plans.
- AI tooling
- A Medusa MCP server, a development agent and a Cloud CLI are included on every Cloud plan; custom workflow agents are Enterprise only.
Solidus
- Native subscriptions
- A built-in subscription engine for models such as curated boxes.
- Custom promotions
- A promotion system where merchants can implement their own promotion logic.
- Multi-store and international
- Multi-store, multi-language and multi-currency support, plus global taxation and logistics.
- Extensible admin and APIs
- An admin dashboard that can be extended or rewritten, with RESTful and GraphQL APIs.
- Returns and exchanges
- Partial returns and exchanges, product pricing segmentation, and bundles or personalized products.
Plans
Medusa
Open source$0
The open-source platform from GitHub, which you host and run yourself on your own PostgreSQL database.
Cloud Develop$29
per month and up, billed monthly
Hosted backend, admin and storefront, GitHub deploys, previews on pull requests, Medusa Search and Emails, with 1M edge requests.
Cloud Launch$99
per month and up, billed monthly
Adds autoscaling, custom storefront domains, automatic backups, webhook events, a Redis-backed store and 5M edge requests.
Cloud Scale$299
per month and up, billed monthly
Adds background workers, priority support, semantic search, longer backup retention, a custom backend domain and 10M edge requests.
Cloud EnterpriseCustom
Adds SLA-backed support, RBAC, SSO and audit logs, a dedicated support engineer and a 99.99% uptime guarantee. Sold through sales.
Solidus
DIY Edition$0
The full Solidus platform on your own infrastructure; you handle upgrades and hosting.
Starter CloudCustom
Managed upgrades and infrastructure, standard monitoring, business-hours support (weekdays 9am to 5pm EST) and 10 hours a month of a solutions architect. Sold through sales.
Enterprise CloudCustom
Expedited upgrades, tailored or bring-your-own infrastructure, 24/7 support, active incident response and 20 hours a month of a solutions architect. Sold through sales.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Medusa or Solidus?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Medusa starts at $29 per month and up, billed monthly (Cloud Develop), and Solidus publishes no starting price.
Which has a free plan, Medusa or Solidus?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both Medusa and Solidus have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.